NORTH TOPSAIL BEACH | Unlike many commercial strands in Eastern North Carolina, North Topsail Beach is home to a mostly grassy right of way where visitors often park.

Usually, such parking is legal, Town Clerk Carin Faulkner said.

However, nearby property owners who wish rules prohibited it have opted to post their own “imitation” no-parking signs, according to information from the town.

A resolution to that problem is among those slated for board action at the regular meeting 6:30 p.m. today at Town Hall at 2008 Loggerhead Court.

“If you look at Wrightsville Beach, their right of way is mostly parking spaces,” Faulkner said. “But people park in the grass here. If there’s a (town) no-parking sign, you’re not allowed to park there. There are property owners who think that the grass is theirs.”

At the Planning Board meeting on June 19, town attorney Brian Edes presented proposed revisions to the town’s Unified Developmental Ordinance to address the private signs posted on public property.

“He stated that there has been some concern about ‘no parking’ signs being placed at or near the right-of-way in areas that are not prohibited parking areas,” according to the proposal in today’s agenda packet. “He is concerned that these private signs convey the message that the public cannot park in areas that they lawfully can park.”

The board will hold a public hearing and then could take action on Edes’ additional sign rules that would “eliminate confusing, distracting and unsafe signs,” according to the proposal.

The planning board recommends that aldermen limit the number of “noncommercial signs” per lot to two, according to the proposal. Those signs should not exceed 6 square feet and are not to be posted within 10 feet of the property line.

Edes added a clause in the town ordinance that addresses “any sign that copies or imitates an official sign, or reasonably appears to purport to have an official status,” according to the proposal.

At tonight’s meeting, the board will also consider changing rules that allow four-wheel driving at the town’s North End.

Town Manager Stuart Turille’s recommended changes would address “the joyriding/reckless driving at the North End,” he wrote in the proposal to the board. He added that the lawful area for off-road driving should be more clearly marked. “...The current version is vague as to (the) area of public trust.”

Since Jan. 1, 2013, the town has issued 130 tickets for “joyriding or reckless driving,” he added.

Fifteen such tickets were issued since April.

“This does not include warnings, so actual officer contact is much higher,” Turille wrote. “Officers spend about 35 minutes on each call ... We received about 100 citizen complaints, costing the town 58 hours of direct police contact for written citations, excluding warnings and responses.”

Page 2 of 2 - Faulkner explained that the entire North End is not public.

“We are trying to define it better in our ordinance so we can enforce it,” Faulkner said. “A large part of that land is privately owned. I think the property owner has agreed to put no-trespassing signs up, but the property owner is the only one who can call to report trespassing.”

A member of N.C. Department of Environment and Natural Resources is scheduled to visit the North End to mark the public areas, she added.

At the meeting, the board also is scheduled to vote on a contract for its fifth phase of shoreline protection.